Whooah, we’re halfway there – and some!

#Run1000Miles Challenge going superbly well!

You may remember that Trail Running magazine Editor Claire said #Run1000Miles was about all participants having “their fittest year ever” 🙂

Well I’m one of literally thousands of people enjoying this very outcome thanks to the challenge and incredible community of people participating. The ethos was very much about this being inclusive and all about encouraging more people to get out and be more active.

The #Run1000Miles Facebook community is the very embodiment of this in action. Just spend anything from 1-10 mins looking through the incredible posts and you’ll see what I mean 🙂 No photoshopping here – all the beautiful realities of mud, sweat, rain, sun, wind, sweaty kit…

I was incredibly honoured and surprised to be asked to be ambassador for this challenge. Inspired by fellow participants, family, club mates and friends, I found myself hitting over 640 miles by end of June!

Much of this has been through doing ‘little and often’ rather than battering myself on some massive trail running routes to compensate for days without running. By ‘little and often’ I mean anything from 2 – 5 miles on a regular basis with some longer runs thrown in. Several of these little runs have also been very slow and steady. All of which I’m sure has been critical to staying injury free (so far!) for the first time in more years than I care to remember 🙂

As we hit mid-August, my personal mileage is at 761. This is 2.5 times further than I ran in the whole of 2016 and comes only 3-4 years after being unable to do any exercise whatsoever due to chronic illness.

Having said all of this, the challenge has shown me that actually the mileage is relatively unimportant. It’s about just getting out there in the fresh air, being in the moment, being active when you can and are able.

The challenge has also inspired my kids to become regular runners – of their own volition rather than any cajoling from me. My eldest has joined our running club and is already winning prizes whilst our youngest is enjoying weekly track sessions as well as loving trail runs 🙂

I’d love to hear how you’re getting on so far. How are you finding it? In what way is it helping you? Are you fitter than before? Has it inspired others to run with you?